I was beginning to wonder last night if Jeremy Paxman had made a bet with someone that he could break his own record from the infamous Michael Howard interview of how many times he could utter the same phrase in a single edition of Newsnight. This time, a woman called Jelena Lecic had been invited onto the programme to tell the story of how photos of her from Facebook had been used without her permission to conceal the true identity of the Syrian opposition activist Amina Arraf, aka 'A Gay Girl in Damascus' (who may or may not be a real person). But no matter what detail of the story Ms Lecic was talking about it seemed there was only ever one thing Paxo wanted to say in reply - "it's a cautionary tale, isn't it?", meaning she should have thought twice about posting personal photos on the internet. Even when she mentioned how upset she was that the Guardian hadn't responded to her complaints about using one of her photos in an article, he immediately shot her down by insisting they must have been acting in good faith, and that what she should really be taking away is that this is a "cautionary tale", young lady.
But what exactly is the 'lesson' here? The nicked photos weren't embarrassing or incriminating in any way, they weren't nude photos, they weren't photos of her with a secret lover, they were just...well, photos. And she made very clear that she had her Facebook privacy settings turned up to the max, but even that hadn't worked. So it appears Paxo's 'warning' is that you should never post any photos on any social networking site under any circumstances at all, unless you're prepared to have your identity stolen by an opposition blogger in an authoritarian state.
Sure, Jeremy. Whatever you say. Another life lesson learned.
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
When will Mexico stop this imaginary barbarity?
One of the joys of having an extended family in the US is that I occasionally catch sight of pearls of wisdom on Facebook such as this -
"Check the law again. It is a felony to be in this country illegally. Try being in another country illegally and see what happens. Most places imprison and some, like Mexico may even execute."
Which would be a truly fabulous point, but for one small detail - nobody has been executed in Mexico since 1961, and capital punishment was formally abolished in 2005.
"Check the law again. It is a felony to be in this country illegally. Try being in another country illegally and see what happens. Most places imprison and some, like Mexico may even execute."
Which would be a truly fabulous point, but for one small detail - nobody has been executed in Mexico since 1961, and capital punishment was formally abolished in 2005.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Rockets don't go to the Moon. People go to the Moon.
Just as an illustration of how pervasive this moronic "guns don't kill people, people kill people" meme is throughout large swathes of the US, here's a pearl of wisdom I spotted doing the rounds on Facebook...
"To everyone who is calling for stricter gun laws in light of the tragedy in Tucson, may I offer this little tidbit: If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons made Oprah fat! Remember: Hold the person accountable for their actions, not just the means they chose to utilize!!! Reposted from another friend's status message. Don't just like it.....repost it."
Quite right too. And let me just add a couple of choice examples of my own. Oxygen doesn't keep us alive. That's silly. People keep themselves alive by breathing. Pretty much any gas will do. And rocket technology didn't take us to the moon. If we hadn't had rockets, we'd still have got there in 1969 - we'd have just...jumped.
"To everyone who is calling for stricter gun laws in light of the tragedy in Tucson, may I offer this little tidbit: If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons made Oprah fat! Remember: Hold the person accountable for their actions, not just the means they chose to utilize!!! Reposted from another friend's status message. Don't just like it.....repost it."
Quite right too. And let me just add a couple of choice examples of my own. Oxygen doesn't keep us alive. That's silly. People keep themselves alive by breathing. Pretty much any gas will do. And rocket technology didn't take us to the moon. If we hadn't had rockets, we'd still have got there in 1969 - we'd have just...jumped.
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Facebook 'electronic tagging' experience
In spite of the fact that I hardly ever use Facebook, it's just managed to get right on my nerves. Last night I received a friend suggestion from someone, and without thinking too much about it I pressed 'confirm', as I've done many times before. But I then received a stern message informing me that I was no longer allowed to send friend requests, because too many of the ones I'd sent before hadn't been accepted. I was also piously reminded that Facebook is a place for networking with people you already know, not for pestering strangers (or words to that effect).
Now, it's quite true that two or three months back I sent out a reasonably large batch of friend requests, many to people I'm only vaguely connected to - so unsurprisingly only a minority accepted. (Not one of them was a total stranger, though.) Why would I do a thing like that? Well, I think it might just have something to do with Facebook constantly haranguing me to hand over my email details so they could find friends for me. So it seems that if you simply do what you're endlessly prompted to do, you get the online equivalent of an 'electronic tagging' for your troubles. More bizarre still, they then continue nagging you with friend suggestions by email, even though you're banned from agreeing to them!
One thing that has really irritated me about Facebook from the start is the stubborn adherence to the fiction that it's strictly for real-life friends only, when everyone knows perfectly well that the majority of users probably have at least one or two friends (and maybe a great many) that they've never actually met. A website whose rules are totally at odds with the way most people want to use it must be going wrong somewhere.
*
Thanks to anyone who voted for me in Political Betting's Poster of the Year poll for 2010 - the voting closed yesterday, and I finished 17th, up from 27th last year (not that I'm keeping track or anything). Incidentally, if Ezio's around, you might be interested to know that Seth O Logue is labouring under the misapprehension that you're a Cornish sex memoirist in disguise!
Now, it's quite true that two or three months back I sent out a reasonably large batch of friend requests, many to people I'm only vaguely connected to - so unsurprisingly only a minority accepted. (Not one of them was a total stranger, though.) Why would I do a thing like that? Well, I think it might just have something to do with Facebook constantly haranguing me to hand over my email details so they could find friends for me. So it seems that if you simply do what you're endlessly prompted to do, you get the online equivalent of an 'electronic tagging' for your troubles. More bizarre still, they then continue nagging you with friend suggestions by email, even though you're banned from agreeing to them!
One thing that has really irritated me about Facebook from the start is the stubborn adherence to the fiction that it's strictly for real-life friends only, when everyone knows perfectly well that the majority of users probably have at least one or two friends (and maybe a great many) that they've never actually met. A website whose rules are totally at odds with the way most people want to use it must be going wrong somewhere.
*
Thanks to anyone who voted for me in Political Betting's Poster of the Year poll for 2010 - the voting closed yesterday, and I finished 17th, up from 27th last year (not that I'm keeping track or anything). Incidentally, if Ezio's around, you might be interested to know that Seth O Logue is labouring under the misapprehension that you're a Cornish sex memoirist in disguise!
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